Testimony for Teressa Raiford

I got to the courthouse at 8:15 a.m. and was not called to the stand till 4, so it was a long day of waiting and reading Patti Smith's brilliant memoir, Just Kids. I was glad I took it with me. I'll say more about it later.

The prosecution called their witnesses in the morning. I was the twelfth and last witness for the defense called at the end of a long day, and a dozen of my photographs had been printed and were exhibited as evidence. Much of my testimony involved discussing what we could all see in the photographs. Teressa's attorney had ordered his questions well and asked questions that allowed me to tell the story as I had seen it. I was very surprised that in the cross-examination, the prosecutor asked me WHY I joined a protest that stopped traffic. I was grateful to him for that, as it gave me a chance to explain how important it is for us all to stop our normal onrush of activities, to think about the killing of unarmed people by police officers, and to take in, emotionally, the level of racist violence to which we have become numb. He asked if I thought people in traffic would be angry because they had to stop. I said I can't say what other people think, but I would not be angry if someone stopped me to remind me to honor someone who had been killed. I said I was impressed by Teressa's dignity and stillness after she was handcuffed and made to stand out in the hot sun for what felt like half an hour but must have been at least five or ten minutes.

Tomorrow morning she will testify in her own defense, and I hope this thing will come to an end. This photo I took of her in the morning before the proceedings began shows her exhaustion. She told me she was having a terrible headache. This has been an intense and draining process for her, and I hope it will end well tomorrow.

I think the trial has actually called more attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, to the case of Michael Brown, and to racist injustice. Although it has been emotionally wearing for Teressa, I think it has done much to illustrate the very principles we are talking about: militarized policing and racial profiling.